It's a big, beautiful world, isn't it? So many places to go, people to meet and photos to take. This project is about all that stuff...and more. You'll learn some great Photoshop and photography techniques, go to interesting places and meet wonderful people.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Dodging Hurricanes in the Gulf

It's been really difficult to get online these past few days. The reason? We started our trip in Houston. Our plan was to go onto San Antonio and finish up in New Orleans. We were intitially slated to arrive in NOLA the same day Hurricane Gustav was. We'd planned to travel between these places on the Amtrak. First Amtrak cancelled our reservations and then we lost our hotel reservation. We know now that Gustav didn't do anywhere near the devastation we'd been exepecting. But we didn't know that then.I am going to be posting chunks from my travel journal here. I am not sure the pics will make a lot of sense. The one that opens this blog was "stolen" from inside the Alamo. (You are not allowed to take pictures inside the Alamo...but I did. Heh heh.) The journal starts with me sitting in the Seattle airport.

It is midnight. I am sitting in the Seattle Airport on a five hour layover. I am waiting for a flight to Houston where we will meet another couple. Our plan is to spend a few days in Houston and then move onto San Antonio. After that – the plan is to go to New Orleans and then back to Houston.

There’s a surreal feeling in airports especially at this hour. An African man is yelling into his cell phone. I have no idea why. He doesn’t look angry. I suspect “loud” is his natural state. A child, maybe three or so, is screaming. The parents look at him like he’s an alien they have no control over. It’s amazing to me that these people don’t get taken away by the child police.

It’s delightful in a way, really. Everyone here is going somewhere. We are all travelers. We are all going somewhere. We are all going. I like going. I like that feeling very much.

I am not sure how I feel about traveling with another couple. We’ve never done this before. I am not a social being. Never have been. Never will be. I am lucky to be able to spell the words “social being.”

Still…I have decided that I am going to learn this social skill stuff. Learning how to coexist with other humans on a continuous basis may just be useful one day. And it doesn’t hurt that the people we’re traveling with are pretty cool.

No one can figure out why we are going to Houston.

When we told the customs officer we were going to Houston, he rolled his eyes and asked “Why?”

We told him we were going there as tourists and he looked at us with a surprised look on his face. “Really? Ain’t nothing in Houston.” He shrugs, writing us off as crazy Canadians, I guess. He stamps our passports and we get on the plane.

Houston is hot and humid and there is not much on the surface of this place to do. It seems to be a town devoted to business and, like many other business towns, it is clean, functional…and devoid of interesting people.

We are walking through the downtown core. In most other cities, this would be choked with pedestrians moving quickly and trying desperately to avoid actually touching another person. Not here. I feel like I have walked into a George Romero zombie film, like all of a sudden, these rotting corpses are going to start flowing out of darkened entryways looking for brains to eat.

There are so very few people about. It’s creepy in a way. Where are the tourists? Where are the people?

We locate the Tourist Information building. This is the domain of Mildred. Her name is on a sign behind the counter. She is a sharp birdfaced woman who looks a little like she just swallowed a hairy insect. We stand at the counter and she comes over.

Her greeting smile looks more like a grimace and before she even opens her mouth, I know what she is going to sound like. Sure enough – there’s a reedy complaining sound to her voice.

“Help you?” she asks. Her question carries the same tone you’d expect to hear in the voice of a lifeguard asking you if you’ve just peed in their pool.

My companions and I ask about Houston and for suggestions on what we should consider doing while there.

She purses her lips for a really long time and the idea I am imposing on her valuable time gets much stronger.

“Well I can get you some brochures,” she says.

We smile but she doesn’t move. I smile (again) and kind of nod and she sighs (again) and ambles off. She returns with a pile of papers. She brings out a white map and a red pen and looks peevishly at the map for a long second. I am wondering if she is one of those people who delights in making marks on a map, telling you where all the important stuff is...and makes scrawls all over it that you can’t make head or tale of later. She smiles. Sort of. And I know instantly this is what she has planned for us.

“You’re here,” she says, drawing a small square on a blank part of the map. “If you go down Blather Street past the Quickamonga turnoff, make a right at the Blahblah Boulevard you will wind up in Blahblahblah Park which is open two to five on every other day except Thrusday.”

I look down at the map. Sure enough – there’s a mass of confusing lines drawn all over it. We stand there looking at her.

“Are there any festivals?” my wife asks.

“No.”

We had sort of expected a little more information. But we nod. We are polite.

She produces brochure after brochure. In a remarkably short period of time, we have amassed pile of brochures and the white map looks like someone in the midst of a seizure was writing on it.

“How do we get to NASA?” I ask.

“You take the 246 or the 249 from here.”

Mildred draws an “x” on a map.

“Could you write ‘Bus’ there?” I ask. She gives me a sharp look. “So we can find it later?”

She sighs and finally acquiesces and writes the three letter word beside the number. But it’s not a total victory. She’s done it so quickly that the word is hardly legible. Mildred does not like having her strategy compromised.

“Can I have a bag for all these brochures?” my wife asks with a tone that usually makes complete strangers do anything for her.

Mildred looks at her. “We don’t usually do that,” she says. Then she pauses to consider the request. “Alright,” she sighs.

She shuffles off to get a map with an air similar to a teenager being forced to take out the garbage.

While she is gone, an old guy walks up to us. He has the words “Walking Tours” on his cap.“Wondering where the people are, huh?”

I nod and resist asking him if someone has dropped a bomb that vaporized all the people. Texans so far have not appeared to have great senses of humor. And many of them are armed so….

“There’s tunnels,” he says with a sly look.

I am thinking of H G Well’s Time Machine where people live underground like latter day moles as they wait to be eaten by the creatures raising them.

We decline the tour and Mildred grudgingly gives us directions to where the entrance to the tunnels are. She spares one last look at the pile of brochures and the swell plastic bag she has given us. “Hope you are going to be using all them and they don’t just get wasted.”

Sarcasm is a gift and I bite back several remarks in which only I will see the humor. We depart for the tunnels. There’s no need to go into our experiences in the tunnels. It’s basically a large underground mall with offices . Big deal.

So far I am not impressed with Houston. Don’t get me wrong. I do believe it’s possible to have a good time anywhere. (Well, for everyone except Mildred, maybe.) But Houston could test that premise.

Subscribe To this blog!

My Blog List

Lighthouse

Color and Light make this picture REALLY pop

Music Harmonica Guy

A New Zealand Street musician. See information on "Creating Travel Portraits" to the left.

Brooklyn Bridge

How do you photograph something that has been photographed THOUSANDS of times? You take the picture and work in the Color Filter adjustments in Photoshop. You introduce some grain and shade along the bottom so the photo looks old -- and then you add a layer in Sepia with a very low opacity. And when you're done, you try hard not to say "Tuh DUM!"

Venice at Midnight

Took this one around midnight in Venice. The lighting was HORRIBLE. But using selective lighting techniques and adding some shading along the top and highlights to the hat really worked on this graphic. (Venice is kinda spooky late at night...)

My head...

Here's a partial desaturation (removal of MOST of the color) to create a mood and a feel for the graphic. Very effective and easy to do once you know where the "Important Stuff" is.

Still Rocking

Here's a rear view of two of the original members of the very long-lived rock group Nazareth taken backstage just before they did a show. These guys were in their 20's when they started and they are still playing together and there's still an obvious affection between them. The graphic would not have been as effective in color...nor would it have been as strong taken with their faces in view. I think the hands (positioned according to the Rule of Thirds in the crop) tell a wonderful story.

Special K

Here's a picture that was not so good until it was re-cropped to fit the Rule of Thirds and converted to black and white. It makes for a softer more powerful image.

Roxy Days

Here's a full view of the theater in Montana. It was taken on a bland day. The color was taken out and treated with a light brown filter. The rough time worn edges were created with onOne's Photo Frame Pro filter set.

Shotz

Having a cup of coffee in New Zealand and this bird came by in hopes of getting crumb from our carrot cake. The bird's in the upper left and the location in the lower right.

Taking Off

Just a second before taking off. The Rule of Thirds makes a great picture even more effective.

Alas Poor Ostrich

Here's an example of a blah image that was saved by the Rule of Thirds. Her face is in the upper right grid and the ostrich egg is in the lower left.

Agape

The lighting as well as the Rule of Thirds draw the eye along the visual line composition of the photo.

Leonardo

Here's a near perfect statue of Leonardo da Vinci. I changed the perspective on the statue so I was looking up at it. Sky was added in the background -- and the tape (created using an excellent plug in from Twisting Pixels) lightens the tone a little.

Lord Byron

Here's an image of a statue framed by dramatic church spires. The image was stronger when converted to black and white -- with a powerful corona backdrop.

I coulda had a V8

A garden statue that offered a stronger image from behind.

Window Lovers

It's a portion of a window display in Italy. The light hit it just right...the "shield" in the lower right hand corner is actually a plate. Very little Photoshop was required.

Sabine

In Florence, there are MANY statues. Here's one of them. It depicts the rape of the of a woman. How do you photograph such a dynamic statue? You photograph a PART of it, add a ragged border and put the faces into the dynamic points of the picture.

Music Guitar Guy

A street musician In New Zealand

Music Bass Fella

A street musician in New Zealand.

Elf Whispers

Here's a subject captured in context. The "idea" of the image is to show a Lord of the Rings tour guide and his intensity and committment to the material he is presenting. Here he's reading a segment from Tolkien's book.

Violinist

What things could this portrait tell you about THIS man? List five things. Can you think of how the photographer and Photoshop artist felt about him? A portait (see discussion to the left) is most interesting when you can learn about the subject AND the artist.

Elven Whispers II

Here's my wife listening to our guide read a favorite passage from Lord of the Rings. The expression on her face is soft. She's enjoying it. For this portait, I tried to convey some of that mysterious process that goes on when you read or hear a story. The image of Legolas (an image not taken by me) reduced to a detailed line drawing and then blended very gently into the background. I used the "Overlay" option on the blending menu. This graphic works for me because it says something about my subject, the context (what's going on) and the aritst.

Old Dog

This cabbie took us all around his little corner of New Zealand. This is a good example of a Travel Portrait. He's not posed for the picture at all. But there's good context here. Again. Look hard at the picture and see what kinds of impressions you may have of who he is...what kind of man he is.

Galadriel Whispers

Here's a famous bridge to Lord of the Rings fans. The challenge: to make it more than a snapshot of a bridge. When taking travel pictures...try to think of how you can illustrate how it FELT to be there. See the article to the left for a wee discussion on this.

Painted Playground

Turning pictures into "paintings" is tops among the way-cool-Photoshop-voodoo-stuff you can do. (Try saying that three times fast...)

You talking to ME?

This is one of my favorite images...as well as one of the easiest to do. This New York cop was patrolling the streets prior to the St. Pat's day parade. The flag was lost in the background until I desaturated everything except the flag. Now it fits the picture and runs in perfect lines with the cop's face. Creating a graphic that is MOSTLY B&W can be very strong.

Adventure

I don't remember where this was taken. Rome maybe? But the idea of the graphic is to try to convey that powerful sense of adventure you get when you travel. What's around the next corner? Who are you going to meet? The picture features a pastel color set and has been recreated on top of Sketchmaster layers twinned with some Virtual Painter5 layers. The doorway was selected -- and all the color poured into that area.

Patriot

The border to this pic was designed using OnOne's excellent PhotoFrame Pro 3. It's a great option for creating borders and frames since you can start with a template and tinker with it until you get exactly the effect you're after.

Trumpet!

Americans LOVE parades. As a Canadian it's fun to watch and great to photograph. How do you capture the excitement...the BRASS of a parade? Like this. In addition to some gentle cropping, the contrast of the photo was increased to bring out the colors of the trumpet more strongly.

Green Guy

This fella was at New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade. It's a good sample of taking a picture of an off center subject in their environment. The background blur was enhanced a little in Photoshop.

Split Personality? Nah

This is me. Half man...half graphic. There's a song in this somewhere. The left side of my face has been treated with Sketchmaster and Virtual Painter. The background was created with TEXTURES from the Photoshop menu, and further designed with Alien Skin's TEXTURES.

Nice Artist

That's "Nice" as in the city. This guy was selling his paintings at a Farmer's Market. I wondered what HIS world looked like. Here's a good example of SELECTIVE FOCUS. First, I "Selected" the artist and left his image alone. Then I added a "Pastel Painting" effect to the rest of his world. Art...artist...get it?

More Grain, Please!

This fellow was a cafe owner in Naples. I wanted the graphic to have a strong "gritty" feel. So I added grain and used Photoshop to accent the lines.

Inquiry

One of my all time favorite pictures of my all time favorite person. My wife. She's an avid photographer and a traveller. And this Hawaiian setting seemed to be the perfect backdrop for the way she looks out at the world. A soft border from OnOne was added to give the picture a gentler look.

Accents

Here's a statue face made into a graphic. The lines of his face were heavily accented, grain added, hues and saturations revised. I also used Layer Opacity (a FABULOUS Photoshop option) to blend the real picture as well as the created ones.